


Can't Seem to Put Anyone Else Above You

by Nevcolleil



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: F/M, Love Triangles, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 17:44:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11236020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevcolleil/pseuds/Nevcolleil
Summary: Sarah had always known that she would have to make a choice about Bryce and Chuck one day... When that day comes, it isn't the choice she'd expected.





	Can't Seem to Put Anyone Else Above You

**Author's Note:**

> This was once written and posted in response to the prompt: 'Sarah always thought she'd have to choose between Bryce and Chuck, but in the end there isn't a choice for her.'

Sarah's known, since the very beginning, that she will have to choose between the two of them eventually. And she knows that her choice will be complete - she can't be with one and work alongside the other. She won't be friends with whomever she doesn't choose. There's just too much history - too much tension - between them. It's thick in the air whenever they're near one another, surprising but undeniable. Chuck - usually so kind, so open with everyone - becomes tight-strung and sharp; Bryce - so cool, so in control - gets this wild look in his eyes.

Sarah can't make sense of it. What about Chuck - soft-spoken, soft-hearted Chuck - provokes Bryce? He is clearly protective of his oldest, maybe his only, platonic friend. But when Chuck is around, Bryce is always on his guard; always moving or ready to move, not content to remain in Chuck's presence for longer than moments at a time. 

And Chuck... 

It isn't about Stanford, Sarah's pretty sure. Chuck knows now why Bryce did what he did, and he hasn't said anything against Bryce's decision then since the truth came out. 

Sarah knows it isn't about _her_. Bryce has never been the jealous type. At least - he was never the jealous type before Chuck. And Sarah's seen Chuck jealous. The way Chuck gets when Sarah's near Bryce isn't the same... Not really.

The only thing Sarah is certain about, in any of it, is that she could be happy with either of them. Her decision then comes down to which man she could still be happy without.

Or so Sarah thinks... 

Until this mission... This one, specific mission - to retrieve an Intersect cypher from a Ring base - where everything that can go sideways _does_.

Bryce has been shot. Casey is too far away to help. There are Ring operatives closing in from all sides, and Sarah probably figures out that they aren't all going to make it less than a minute after Bryce does.

Still, it hits her like a slap in the face when she hears Chuck say, "Bryce, what-" just behind her, then turns and sees Bryce slumping to the floor, pulling away from Chuck's support.

Chuck kneals to one side of Bryce, there in the only temporarily empty corridor, and Sarah kneals to the other.

"This is ridiculous. I'm only slowing you down," Bryce says.

"Uh, _yeah_. We can take a break _after_ we've outrun the bad guys with guns," Chuck immediately misunderstands. "Come on, buddy. Sarah, help me get him back up."

"Chuck..." Sarah doesn't know what else to say, not that the quiver in her own voice doesn't say quite a bit.

"What? Help me-"

"I'm not getting back up, Chuck," Bryce spells it out, more gently than Sarah's ever heard Bryce say anything. " _I'm slowing you down._. You've gotta go with Sarah. Get out of here."

Chuck's face, in this moment, might be the most awful thing Sarah's ever seen.

"No."

Chuck doesn't ask again what Bryce and Sarah are talking about - he doesn't argue or protest or try to bargain. He just flat out refuses, in that stubborn way Chuck only gets around Bryce.

"No. _No_! Are you kidding me? After everything... After you die on me _twice_ , you think I'm just going to leave you behind?"

"This is how it ends for guys like me," Bryce says, without a shred of uncertainty. And for a moment, Sarah believes this is the epiphany she's been waiting for. The understanding she's lacked in order to make her choice, all this time. "This is how it was always gonna end."

There is so much apology in Bryce's voice - so much regret. So many emotions that are obvious on Bryce's beautiful face, and obviously have nothing to do with this mission, this moment. 

But the apology isn't for Sarah.

Bryce's eyes are on Chuck. And Chuck's eyes are on Bryce - they only have eyes for one another.

And if that wasn't enough to clue Sarah in, what happens next more than does the trick.

"Not if I can help it," Chuck says. He pulls the cypher out of the pocket of his vest. "Look, all they really want is to get this back. If we split up, we still might not make it - any of us. But if they have the cypher back-"

"Chuck, that can't happen," Sarah says, sadly but firmly.

She wants to save Bryce as much as anyone - except, obviously, Chuck - but what Chuck is suggesting... letting the bad guys win, just to save one person, even a person she loves...

That isn't an option for them. It can never be an option.

Sarah expects Bryce to chime in and explain this, too, to Chuck, but Bryce is silent for a beat, and then he says. "You're right. Leave it with me."

"Bryce!"

"You two keep heading that way. I'll try and buy you some time."

"Bryce, you know we can't-"

"They have orders on the Intersect to shoot and kill, Sarah!" Bryce shoots down Sarah's voice of reason with as much passion as he would usually have arguing for it. "If I head back to the last turn, make sure they see I've got the cypher, I can draw them away..."

"Good idea." That's the only warning Chuck gives - although, knowing Chuck, Sarah knows she shouldn't have needed a warning to know where Chuck's mind has gone.

Chuck leaps to his feet and, cypher in hand, dashes back the way they came - directly towards the Ring operatives they've been running from. 

"Chuck!" Sarah and Bryce scream simultaneously, but Bryce does it with such raw, unprecedented _terror_... His whole body shakes as he shouts, and he starts to claw his way up on the wall, onto his feet.

If she thinks about it every day for the next thirty years, Sarah doesn't believe she will ever figure out how she managed to get Bryce out of the compound.

The entire ordeal is one, heart-pounding blur in Sarah's memory, only moments after they are - all of them, even Chuck - miraculously clear of the Ring installation and headed back to Castle.

She remembers Bryce's screams. She remembers having to wrestle Bryce through doorways. 

She sits in the passenger seat of the van, across from Casey, as they speed through the city, Bryce patched up but still weak in the back, Chuck right at his side.

That tension Sarah has always noticed between the two of them is thicker than ever - but for once Sarah doesn't mistake where's it coming from.

And she realizes that the decision she's been struggling to make for so long was never really her decision at all.

She can't choose Bryce. She can't choose Chuck. 

Not when they've both clearly, inevitably, chosen one another.


End file.
